Scottish Executive

Air Services

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to Her Majesty's Government and the government of the United States of America seeking the provision of US immigration facilities at Edinburgh and Glasgow airports, in light of the impact of direct flights from the United States on tourism and business.

Nicol Stephen: Immigration issues are reserved to the UK government. The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK government on a range of issues.

Historic Buildings

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to promote the restoration of Kinloch Castle; whether Kinloch Castle is on the Scottish Civic Trust's buildings at risk register and, if so, what implications this has for the castle's future and whether this renders it eligible for any public funding towards the costs of its restoration.

Allan Wilson: Kinloch Castle is owned and managed by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). This is therefore an operational matter for SNH. I understand that SNH are in discussion with the Phoenix Trust to investigate possible approaches to securing the castle's future.

Libraries

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the net expenditure on public libraries was in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority.

Mr Frank McAveety: Net expenditure on library service for 2001-02 and 2002-03, and estimated expenditure for 2003-04, is show, by local authority, in the table below:

  


Council

Actual
2001-02
Net Expenditure
(£000)

Actual
2002-03
Net Expenditure
(£000)

Budget Estimate 2003-04
Net Expenditure
(£000)



Aberdeen

3,002

3,550

3,780



Aberdeenshire

3,184

3,048

3,959



Angus

1,633

1,664

1,835



Argyll and Bute

1,236

1,332

1,160



Clackmannanshire

836

748

862



Dumfries and Galloway

2,340

2,576

2,466



Dundee

3,582

3,812

3,949



East Ayrshire

2,005

1,924

1,987



East Dunbartonshire

2,553

2,398

2,648



East Lothian

1,357

1,377

1,363



East Renfrewshire

1,853

1,972

1,992



Edinburgh

9,163

10,150

10,637



Eilean Siar

698

660

744



Falkirk

2,512

2,586

2,863



Fife

6,011

6,287

6,747



Glasgow

10,947

10,100

13,005



Highland

3,535

3,860

4,301



Inverclyde

1,322

1,345

1,353



Midlothian

1,178

1,181

1,163



Moray

1,501

1,584

1,679



North Ayrshire

2,003

2,407

2,833



North Lanarkshire

5,678

5,546

5,745



Orkney

1,245

2,045

664



Perth and Kinross

2,906

3,061

3,097



Renfrewshire

3,742

3,885

3,847



Scottish Borders

1,459

1,461

1,579



Shetland

781

873

983



South Ayrshire

1,721

1,834

1,873



South Lanarkshire

5,753

5,357

4,944



Stirling

1,665

1,710

1,793



West Dunbartonshire

1,787

2,223

2,327



West Lothian

1,851

1,959

2,005

NHS Staff

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost was of bank and agency nurses for (a) 1999-2000, (b) 2000-01, (c) 2001-02, (d) 2002-03 and (e) 2003-04, broken down by NHS board.

Malcolm Chisholm: The cost of bank nurses, broken down by NHS board area, is shown in the table below. Information on agency nurses is published in tables E12 to E15 on the Scottish Health Statistics website at www.isdscotland.org/workforce . Table E14 provides a breakdown of agency nurse costs by NHS board area. Information for the year 2003-04 is not currently available.

  Table A: Cost of Bank Nursing and Midwifery staff; trend by NHS Board

  


 

Bank Cost



1999-2000

2000-01

2001-02

2002-03



Total

21,604,589

24,887,686

31,262,459

38,964,926



Qualified

12,583,106

14,500,531

17,418,060

21,009,771



Argyll and Clyde 

1,062,302

916,881

1,433,734

1,439,255



Ayrshire and Arran 

597,460

712,906

636,966

670,635



Borders 

441,479

388,994

499,133

577,034



Dumfries and Galloway 

26,108

52,375

131,702

112,050



Fife 

816,222

1,017,115

993,307

1,353,110



Forth Valley 

285,853

357,867

490,591

1,223,219



Grampian 

1,816,785

2,231,590

2,183,714

2,453,245



Greater Glasgow 

2,205,412

2,669,129

3,014,238

3,889,517



Highland 

701,147

867,490

1,057,952

1,153,761



Lanarkshire 

509,310

853,111

790,805

1,271,099



Lothian 

2,892,078

3,169,205

4,827,831

5,399,373



Orkney 

72,737

92,516

164,120

182,335



Shetland 

79,335

90,038

100,874

141,900



Tayside 

887,211

906,948

950,294

871,909



Western Isles 

103,215

158,853

128,788

213,512



Special Health Boards

69,780

10,803

8,614

46,711



Unqualified

9,021,483

10,387,155

13,844,399

17,955,155



Argyll and Clyde 

610,977

589,300

1,099,805

1,227,354



Ayrshire and Arran 

841,888

1,099,425

1,182,610

1,425,957



Borders 

351,405

406,807

519,456

538,621



Dumfries and Galloway 

5,307

-

15,413

3,261



Fife 

572,585

578,472

624,662

747,370



Forth Valley 

190,639

304,281

395,774

1,210,864



Grampian 

977,906

1,265,578

1,514,693

1,504,279



Greater Glasgow 

1,824,883

2,455,682

3,500,659

4,842,372



Highland 

371,654

445,277

558,409

687,574



Lanarkshire 

413,156

661,852

762,735

1,117,152



Lothian 

2,342,527

1,917,739

2,797,841

3,609,200



Orkney 

24,598

26,321

51,865

56,755



Shetland 

49,532

51,090

52,765

64,455



Tayside 

161,643

470,356

653,401

778,223



Western Isles 

59,288

118,029

116,884

149,803



Special Health Boards

240,168

1,655

2,824

3,021



  Source: Earning Related Base Of Data

  Bank nurses are employees of NHSScotland whilst agency nurses are employed by private nursing agencies and both are utilised by individual NHS employers to cover temporary nursing gaps. These gaps will continue to occur but employers have been encouraged to follow the guidance in Temporary Measures the Accounts Commission for Scotland Report 2000 on reducing usage and costs through a hierarchy of options in which preference for bank is higher than more expensive agency nurses.

  The Partnership Agreement commits to implementing nationally co-ordinated nursing bank arrangements in Scotland and a project is currently examining a range of options to reduce the reliance on agency nurses, assist nurse placement across Scotland and improve patient services. This will report in the autumn.

  The Scottish Health Workforce Plan 2004 Baseline report published in April 2004, focuses on our drive to increase our capacity, reduce waiting times, improve outcomes and provide care in new and better ways.

Rail Network

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what financial contribution it, Strathclyde Passenger Transport (SPT) or ScotRail make to costs associated with the operation and maintenance of the railway station at Glasgow Prestwick International Airport.

Nicol Stephen: In 2003-04, Glasgow Prestwick International Airport (GPIA) received almost £400,000 from the ticket revenue sharing agreement that it has with the rail industry, mainly from SPT and ScotRail.

  In addition, the loss of revenue arising from the discounted rail ticket arrangements for airline passengers is met by ScotRail, SPT and, through franchise subsidy, the Scottish Executive. In 2003-04, the benefit to GPIA under these arrangements amounted to over £665,000.

Tourism

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) domestic and (b) overseas tourists have visited Scotland in each of the last three years, broken down by tourist board area.

Mr Frank McAveety: The number of domestic and overseas visitors to each of the area tourist board (ATB) areas in Scotland in the last three years for which data is available is as follows:

  

 

(millions)



2000

2001

2002



Domestic

Overseas

Total

Domestic

Overseas

Total

Domestic

Overseas

Total



Aberdeen and Grampian

1.91

0.17

2.08

1.54

0.13

1.67

1.83

0.15

1.98



Angus and Dundee

0.80

0.05

0.85

0.58

0.05

0.63

0.56

0.05

0.61



AILLST*

2.54

0.19

2.73

2.24

0.19

2.43

2.42

0.21

2.63



Ayrshire and Arran

0.87

0.09

0.96

1.21

0.08

1.29

0.99

0.07

1.06



Dumfries and Galloway

1.15

0.05

1.20

0.90

0.04

0.94

0.92

0.04

0.96



Edinburgh and Lothians

3.38

0.94

4.32

3.69

0.87

4.56

3.96

0.87

4.83



Greater Glasgow and Clyde Valley

3.40

0.50

3.90

3.20

0.48

3.68

3.34

0.46

3.80



Highlands of Scotland

2.72

0.41

3.13

2.53

0.36

2.89

2.44

0.36

2.80



Kingdom of Fife

0.82

0.09

0.91

0.75

0.08

0.83

0.73

0.09

0.82



Perthshire

1.22

0.10

1.32

0.94

0.10

1.04

1.06

0.10

1.16



Scottish Borders

0.45

0.03

0.48

0.38

0.04

0.42

0.52

0.04

0.56



Scotland

19.26

2.62

21.88

17.96

2.42

20.38

18.77

2.44

21.21



  Notes:

  * Argyll, the Isles, Loch Lomond, Stirling and the Trossachs.

  1. The total number of visitors to Scotland in 2000, 2001 and 2002 was 20.7 million, 19.1 million and 20.1 million respectively. The table above shows a slightly higher total because a visitor moving between e.g. two ATB areas is counted as making two visits.

  2. Due to small sample sizes, there are no area figures for Orkney, Shetland or Western Isles Tourist Boards.